I would like to briefly interrupt your Christmas planning to bring you a bit of summer in December—My Summer Sampler quilt is complete! : )

My mother-in-law had hip replacement surgery last Friday. The surgery had been scheduled for January, which I thought would be good timing for me to make her a quilt. When a spot opened up for her to have the surgery earlier, I thought I might not be able to manage it, because I was already so busy. But then I realized, I had the perfect quilt for her, and it was already very much in progress … my Summer Sampler!

The top and the back were already done, so all I really had to do was quilt it and bind it. But of course, I can never leave well enough alone or make anything easy for myself. I immediately decided that the current size was too small to be useful, and I wanted to make it bigger. So between Wednesday and Monday, I took the borders off the original top, made eight additional sampler blocks and added them, put new borders on, added to the back to get it up to size, basted it, quilted it, and bound it. Whew!

When I decided to add the extra blocks, I wanted to find and choose new block designs quickly, so all of the pictures in the Summer Sampler Flickr group were invaluable to me. Many of my new blocks were inspired by the extra blocks that some of you made. I loveClaudia’s beautiful red and aqua quilt, and the additional blocks she chose were brilliant, so many of my new blocks came straight from her quilt. Thank you, Claudia, for inspiring me! : )

And my MIL seems to just love the quilt. She said it’s beautiful work, cheerful colors, and that she will “treasure it for the rest of her life.” Wow! She’s a very practical woman who isn’t at all prone to exaggeration, so that was a wonderful compliment coming from her and really made me feel great. I’m so glad she can enjoy it while she’s recovering.

So, that’s one major thing off my list. I’ve also got our Christmas decorations up and made excellent progress on my Secret Santa Twitter Swap item, so I am feeling a lot less stressed today! Score one (or several) for me.

I'm still trying to get over the shock of knowing you made & added all those extra blocks, bordered, sandwiched, quilted and bound BETWEEN WEDNESDAY AND MONDAY. Hello, new superhero of quilting!! Congratulations, it is a stunning quilt. How gratifying to have such a heartfelt response from your mother in law (no matter how strong her painkillers are)hehe. No really, what more can a quilter ask for? sweet.

It is a wonderful quilt and it says a lot that you would do all of that work for your MIL. She must be a special lady. You must have worked night and day to finish that. You deserve a rest. Happy Holidays!

What a lucky MIL!!! Wow! I love all the extra blocks you added, they look super fantastic! How sweet of you to make her a get-well quilt, you're such a good daughter-in-law 🙂 I keep meaning to email you and life keeps getting in the way this week – hope all is well with you!

Congratulations for your absolutly great great Quilt!!! It looks soooo beautiful; I like your new version much better than the original. And so much work in such a short time. Respect! A generous gift.By the way, I`m still quilting…Silke

Lee, it's gorgeous! Could you please tell me, on the red/aqua block that you list as another HST block, how did you do the math to figure out what you needed? Or could you point me to a tutorial? I'm still new to quilting and trying to learn how to think about this sort of thing intuitively, but I'm not there.

Lee, this is truly amazing! I loved the original, but the additions made it even better! My first really big quilt was a sampler, which I hand-quilted, and it took me years, so I swore them off (even though I adore it). But all summer i was tempted, and after seeing this, I think I'm going to have to go back and start one of these in the spring…and maybe it will be finished by the end of next summer! Your colors are fantastic – I really love the way it turned out!

It looks so great, Lee! I love your additions. I've got seriously like 2 blocks to finish, but I got so busy mine got set to the side. You have completely inspired me to get mine out and finish it. Really, another great one. I know exactly why your Mother-in-law loves it.